


Glow

by Chrystie, kate882



Category: Kuroko no Basuke | Kuroko's Basketball
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, literal angel Kuroko Tetsuya
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-23
Updated: 2015-10-18
Packaged: 2018-04-16 18:54:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4636419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chrystie/pseuds/Chrystie, https://archiveofourown.org/users/kate882/pseuds/kate882
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Kuroko Tetsuya is a guardian angel assigned to help a human named Aomine Daiki.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Kuroko Tetsuya had a new human that he was being assigned to. A boy named Aomine Daiki. He was pretty sure it was a school day, but instead of being inside the school, Kuroko found Aomine laying on the roof of the school.

Kuroko was sure this wasn’t quite right, but shrugged it off and laid down next to the sleeping human to wait for him to wake up.

Aomine slowly opened his eyes to the glaring sunlight above him. He really didn’t feel like moving but Satsuki would definitely be here sooner or later to tell him to go to class, or to go to practice, or to do something or another that would be useless. He rolled over onto his side contemplating on napping for another five minutes. His eyes met big, bright blue ones staring back at him. He sprung up into a sitting position and looked down at the figure next to him. Who the hell was this?

“Hello.” Kuroko said, sitting up as well, granted not as quickly as the human had. “You’ve been up here for a while. Other students have gone home.” He informed the other as he stretched his arms and then his wings, yawning a bit.

Aomine froze. Were... were those _wings?_ Did this guy have fucking _wings?_ He blinked a few times. Even rubbed his eyes a bit. The wings never disappeared. “Wh… who are you? _What_ are you?” He managed to utter out.

“I am Kuroko Tetsuya. I’ve been assigned to be your guardian angel.” Kuroko replied simply, folding his hands in his lap, looking fully awake now, and offered a small smile to Aomine. “And you are Aomine Daiki, correct?”

It took Aomine more than a minute to process what Kuroko had said. “Guardian angel...” He repeated still a little confused before understanding which brought up completely new questions. “Why the hell do I need a guardian angel?”

“Well, I can assure you it has nothing to do with hell.” Kuroko said flatly. “You tell me. Why do you think you need a guardian angel? What’s going wrong in your life?”

Was this guy serious? Aomine could feel his anger rising. “There _nothing_ wrong. Isn’t it your job to know why you’re here? As far as I’m concerned, I don’t need you.” Aomine shouted.

Kuroko tilted his head. “Then why are you so angry, Aomine-kun?” He asked.

“Because I don’t need some strange asshole going up to me and telling me that there’s something _wrong_ with my life!” Aomine was pretty sure he would clock the guy in the head regardless of what he said next.

“Well, if there is nothing wrong, I’m sure the mistake will be fixed, your memories of this will be taken away, and I’ll be reassigned to someone else. For now though, You’re stuck with me.” Kuroko told him. “Why weren’t you in school? I don’t believe it’s normal to sleep on roofs either. I was rather surprised. The last time I was sent to someone on a roof it was to keep them from jumping off of it, not to see them sleeping on it.”

“Tch.” So that's what this guy was here for. He was sent to just be another annoyance that won’t leave him alone and tell him to go to classes and practice. He was just another Satsuki. “None of your business.” He fell back to lay down again, crossing his arms behind his head to use as a pillow.

Kuroko frowned at the lack of answer, but didn’t complain, simply laid down as well. He didn’t have to fix everything today. He had a feeling this one was going to be difficult. He’d had worse though.

Aomine tried to ignore Kuroko’s presence beside him but he could feel his eyes boring into the side of his head. He turned to face him, his annoyance fully displayed on his face. “Can’t you just go back to where you came from?! I don’t need you here!”

“I would get into a lot of trouble if I were to do that, so no, I don’t think I can. My apologies for the inconvenience.” He didn’t look or sound apologetic. He seemed almost amused by the human’s annoyance.

“Then can you be somewhere not here?!” Aomine just wanted to be alone! Why couldn’t this guy understand that?

“No.” Kuroko said flatly, turning a bit so that he was looking up at the sky instead of at Aomine to give an indicator of how interested he was in this conversation.

Aomine couldn’t believe this guy. He decided he really didn’t want to deal with this. He got up and made his way to the exit. School was over. He could go home and hopefully avoid Satsuki for at least a few hours.

Kuroko was a bit thankful for the change in locations, because roofs weren’t very comfortable for laying on. He wasn’t sure why this human couldn’t skip school like a normal teenager by staying home. He got to his feet and followed Aomine, looking around to learn his way around the area as they walked.

Aomine got about as far as the school courtyard before he could no longer take it. He whipped himself around to glare at the little angel. “Do you _have_ to follow me?”

“Do _you_ have to shout? Other people can’t see me. You just look crazy.” Kuroko replied calmly.

“Then don’t follow me!” Aomine turned back to the direction he was originally facing and walked faster.

Kuroko had to almost jog to keep up since Aomine’s legs were longer than his, but he managed without complaint.

Aomine ignored the angel the entire way home. Entering his front door, he only spoke up slightly to give his mom somewhat of a greeting, trying to escape before she could question him.

“Daiki, didn’t you have basketball practice?” His mom called from the kitchen. He gave her the short lie of today’s practice being cancelled, bolting to his room as he did so and slamming the door before the angel could come in.  

Kuroko frowned and simply walked through the door. “Basketball? I like that one. Some of the other sports you people play are weird, but basketball is nice.” He said casually.

Aomine collapsed onto his bed and groaned into his pillow. How can he get rid of this guy? “There’s a ball over there,” he pointed to the corner near the door, “Knock yourself out. Leave me alone.”

Kuroko walked over to it, picking it up and frowned. “It’s flat. How long has it been since you played? I assumed you were on a team if you had practice.”

“With that ball? A while ago.” He tried not to remember that the last time he had touched that ball, his favorite ball, was to slam it into the corner it was sitting in during a bout of frustration.

“I’ll play with you if you want. We’d just have to put some air in this, but that shouldn’t take too long.” Kuroko offered.

“No.” He rolled around so he wouldn’t have to look at the angel. “I’m not playing.” He wouldn’t play against another weakling who would just lose interest halfway through.

“Why not? Are you not good or something?” He asked with a tilt of his head.

“If only,” Aomine muttered, mostly to himself. He buried himself deeper into his pillow hoping that the angel would take a hint.

Kuroko was starting to get why he was here. Or, at least he was pretty sure he was. “Prove it.” He challenged.

Aomine sat up growling a bit at the angel. Why couldn’t he just leave? He forced himself to compose himself a bit before looking the angel straight in the eyes. “Fine. But when I win you have to leave.”

“No, that won’t work for me, but we can still play.” He said, glancing around Aomine’s room. “Do you have something to put air into this basketball?”

Aomine let his face fall to his hands. “It’s in the closet.” He might as well just give the angel a thorough defeat. Maybe he’d at least shut up after like all his other opponents.

Kuroko walked over to the closet and after pumping the ball he tossed it to Aomine. “Lead the way.”

Aomine easily caught the ball in one hand and tucked it under his arm. Not wanting to deal with his mom again he opted to leave through his window. He climbed out and jumped onto the tree in front of it, swiftly climbing down before making his way to the nearest street ball court.

Kuroko watched with mild concern, but Aomine seemed to make it to the ground safely. He opted to use his wings instead of just jumping, and landed next to Aomine to continue the walk to the street court.

* * *

Aomine dribbled the ball a few times, standing in the middle of the court, looking at the short angel. He wasn’t very good at this despite saying he liked it so much. Aomine dribbled around him and scored his fifth point. “Are you satisfied yet?”

“No. Let’s keep going.” Kuroko said, running after the ball to try and get to it first this time. He still had yet to make a goal, but he wasn’t giving up. He was pretty sure that was the problem. Aomine really was very good. And he was still holding back. He was waiting for Kuroko to give up. So, he wouldn’t.

“Tch. Whatever, your funeral.” Aomine didn’t really have much interest playing with Kuroko. He was just going to give up sooner or later. They always do. He scored point after point, letting Kuroko get one or two in out of generosity, until he was on his fifteenth point. By that point he was only a little tired while Kuroko looked as if he was ready to collapse. “Are you done yet?”

Kuroko shook his head, taking a few deep breaths before answering. “No, I can keep playing if you can.” He declared, despite the fact that Aomine was certainly looking in better shape than him at the moment, so there was no doubt in Kuroko’s mind that Aomine could keep playing.

“You look like you’re about to pass out. Just give up.” Why wouldn’t this guy quit?

“No.” Kuroko said, defiance dripping from the word. He took one more deep breath before stealing the ball and going for another shot. A shot that he missed, but he was trying.

Aomine stood rooted to his spot, slightly confused. “Why?”

“Why should I?” Kuroko replied, going to retrieve the ball. If Aomine wasn’t going to move, maybe he could actually get in another shot.

“Because everyone does.” Aomine had meant to say it sounding more sure of himself, instead he only managed to sound disappointed.

Yep. He’d been right about what the problem was. Now it was just a matter of fixing it. “Well I’m not, so let’s keep playing.” Kuroko dribbled the ball a few times and smiled brightly when he actually made the shot.

“Well, why don’t you?!” Aomine hadn't really meant to shout but what was _with_ this guy? Why couldn’t he just be normal like everyone else and just _stop._

“Why should I?” Kuroko repeated. This time he didn’t go after the ball since it seemed Aomine wasn’t going to keep playing; he was going to keep demanding answers instead.

“Because that’s what happens! People play against me and they stop trying! They give up and they accept that it’s useless!” Aomine exploded at the angel.

“It’s only useless if I give up. There was a phrase that I heard here one time, and I rather liked it. I think it applies to this situation very well. ‘You miss every shot you don’t take’. So, what would be the point in my giving up?” Kuroko said, calmly meeting Aomine’s eyes.

“Because it’s obvious you can’t win!” Aomine wanted to rip his hair out. “You can’t beat me! No one can!” Aomine had resigned himself to this truth a long time ago.

Kuroko stood as tall as he could, which compared to Aomine wasn’t very tall at all, and narrowed his eyes at him. “So what?”

 _So what?_ What did he mean _‘so what?’_ “Winning’s the point of the game!” Aomine really didn’t want to be shouting but the angel was so frustrating.

Kuroko tilted his head. “Is it? I thought the point was to play a sport you loved. Or to have fun. What’s the point of winning if you’re not happy?” He asked curiously.

“Winning’s the only thing that matters,” Aomine had dropped his voice to almost a whisper, looking away from Kuroko as he spoke. He repeated the same line that had been drilled into him since his second year in Teiko by both his coach and his captain. Winning is the only thing anyone cares about.

“That sounds stupid. You shouldn’t listen to whoever told you that.” Kuroko replied.

Aomine turned around to pick up the ball, staring at it. “Easy for you to say.” With that, he left the court and the angel behind. Kuroko could follow him if he wanted, he didn’t care. It didn’t matter.

“Why is that easy for me to say? When it comes to points, I just lost. Shouldn’t I be the one upset about not winning if winning is everything?” He asked as he followed Aomine, a bit disappointed that their game seemed to be over.

Aomine couldn’t help but laugh. Laugh at the angel, laugh at his situation, laugh at how the angel seemed to just be his past mindset haunting him. “You know. I kind of miss being able to think like that. But I was stupid back then. No one cares about anything other than winning. You’re just that one rarity that thinks different."

“If winning is all that matters, why are you so unhappy when you win?” Kuroko’s legs were tired, so he let his wings carry him instead, floating a few inches off the ground.

Aomine didn’t answer him. He didn’t want to remember all the broken faces he’d caused. All the broken spirits that were his fault.

Kuroko reached over and poked his face when he didn’t get an answer. “I think that you don’t like winning. And I think it’s because you don’t like how other people react to losing. I suppose that would almost make you a nice person, because it would mean that you don’t like seeing others upset.”

Aomine batted Kuroko’s hand grumbling a bit. “What are you, my psychiatrist now?”

“And you don’t even have to pay me. How great is that?” Kuroko replied sarcastically.

“Yeah, _great.”_ Aomine grumbled. Aomine walked towards the closest Maji Burger, fully intending on drowning his frustrations in food.

“Can we play again tomorrow?” Kuroko asked, noticing that they weren’t heading back towards Aomine’s house like he’d thought that they would be.

Aomine didn’t think the angel would take a ‘no’ as an answer so he just grunted out a “Maybe” hoping it would satisfy him. Arriving at Maji Burger, he ordered himself ten burgers with a drink and fries and angrily sat down by the window.

Kuroko sat down in the chair across from Aomine, watching the people around him with interest. Humans always were fascinating to him.

Aomine mowed through his first three burgers quickly before slowing down to eat at a human pace. He raised an eyebrow at the angel, “Do you need to eat at all?”

“I like to, but I don’t need to.” Kuroko said. “Although, other people can’t see or hear me, so you look like you’re talking to yourself.” he added.

“Not like I care what other people think,” Aomine shrugged but pulled out his phone and plugged headphones into it to make it seem as though he was talking on the phone.

“I’m pretty sure that you do care.” Kuroko said calmly. “Actually, that’s your entire problem, really.”

Aomine arched a brow at that, “What do you mean by that, oh angel therapist,” Aomine asked sarcastically. He really didn’t enjoy getting read by some guy he just met today, actually he wasn’t sure he liked being read at all.

“Other people’s opinion on your playing is why they give up, which is why you’re so angry. Even as you were just telling me that you don’t care what people think, you made a modification to what you were doing to make sure they would think something else.” Kuroko explained.

Aomine _really_ didn’t like this guy. “How about you mind your own business.” Aomine stuffed the rest of the burgers into his mouth, drowning them in his drink and stormed out of the restaurant. Apparently he couldn’t even eat his anger away. Not with the flying annoyance constantly glued to him.

“You asked what I meant by it.” Kuroko mumbled, despite knowing Aomine couldn’t hear him. He slowly got up and followed Aomine, keeping a slight distance back to give him some space.

Aomine walked back to his house in complete silence and climbed back up the tree outside his window. He fell back onto his bed and stared up at the ceiling. He really had no idea why he was sent this angel. It wasn’t like he could do anything to help him, all he could do was fly around him and psychoanalyze him, two things he really didn’t need.

Kuroko stayed quiet as he entered Aomine’s room, his wings wrapping around him when he sat on the floor, almost like a shield from Aomine’s anger, as they sat in silence.

Aomine stubbornly stared at the ceiling for a few more minutes before the guilt finally got to him. “You don’t have to be on the floor y’know.” He rolled himself over to give the angel some room to join him.

Kuroko looked up with mild surprise at the offer, only hesitating a moment before joining Aomine on the bed.

“We can play basketball tomorrow if you want.” Aomine figured that was the best way of giving an apology without actually saying it.

Kuroko gave him a small smile and nodded. “I’d like that. Thank you, Aomine-kun.” He said.

“Yeah, whatever.” They laid there together in the dark in silence for a while, letting Aomine go through his thoughts, something he did pretty often now since he was usually alone. He shifted a bit to look at the angel better, “Do you really think you can help me?” He accidently blurted out.

“I hope so. I want you to be happy, and it’s not very fun for a guardian angel to go back having failed. But I really do hope that I can help you. I think it’d be nice to see you smile instead of that scowl you seem to be perpetually wearing.” Kuroko replied. offering Aomine a tiny smile.

“And if it’s impossible? What then? What if I’ve forgotten what it’s like to be happy?” Aomine really wondered this. He hadn’t been able to truly smile since middle school. He didn’t know if it was possible to be happy anymore, at least not when he was playing basketball.

“Then it’s my job to help you remember. But I don’t think you have. A lot of people who are sad are that way because they remember what it’s like to be happy, and they want to go back to that.” Kuroko told him. He reached  forward and used his index fingers to push Aomine’s mouth into a smile. “Hmm. I think it will look better when it’s real. So, we’ll make that the goal.”

Aomine went a little cross eyed looking at where his fingers were. He batted them away, unconsciously holding onto one of them as he spoke, “If you can do that then I’d like to see you try. I haven’t smiled in a long time.”

“I look forward to seeing it.” Kuroko said, giving Aomine a bright smile.

“Well you seem to smile a lot. Maybe they’ll start to rub off.” Aomine tried to be positive. Maybe that was the first step he needed to take. Trying to be positive. It didn’t really feel right but it was something.

Kuroko really _didn’t_ smile that much. He usually had a pokerface going, but he wanted Aomine to be happy, and sometimes other people being happy could help. And something about this particular human made him show his emotions a bit more than usual. “I hope so.”


	2. Chapter 2

A week had passed by in a similar way the first day had. Aomine barely went to classes despite all the people nagging at him to, an angel now included in the list, and he didn't go to practice at all, only showing up for the practice game they had against another school. Instead of sleeping during practice like he usually preferred to do, he was dragged towards the street ball court by the angel almost everyday. And every time they played it ended up the same way as the first, with Aomine winning by a large gap in the points while allowing Kuroko a few pity points.

At the start of the second week, when Aomine woke up, he was fully intending to not go to school. That was until he heard his mother call him from downstairs combined with a call from Satsuki on his phone, and Kuroko poking him in the cheek trying to get him to get out of bed. “Aomine-kun, it’s morning. You have school. Aomine-kun, get up.”

Aomine tried to ignore Kuroko’s insistent poking for all of two minutes before reaching out to pull Kuroko to him. He kept one arm securely around Kuroko’s waist and the other over his mouth. “No. Sleep.” He managed to grumble out.

The startled yelp Kuroko let out was muffled by Aomine’s hand as he was yanked down against Aomine. He blinked owlishly at him for a moment, blush slowly forming on his face as he realized how close they were, before he started trying to sit back up.

Aomine tightened his hold around Kuroko’s waist but uncovered his mouth. “That’s not sleeping,” he muttered, his brows scrunching a bit.

“It’s not,” Kuroko agreed, kind of glad that Aomine’s eyes were still closed so that he couldn’t see the blush. “You have school.” He tried half heartedly.

“Don’t feel like going.” Aomine sleepily stroked Kuroko’s back, feeling something soft there. “What are these? They’re nice.”

Kuroko tensed a little, not very used to people touching his wings, but slowly let himself relax. “Those are my wings,” He answered. He wasn’t very sure what to do in this situation. He should be telling Aomine to go to school, but he’d already done that and Aomine didn’t seem about to budge on the matter.

Aomine took a minute to process what he had said. _Wings?_ Realization hit him that he was currently cuddling with his guardian angel and he would have startled away if he wasn’t so comfortable. He continued to stroke the wings, liking how soft they felt on his fingers and buried his nose into Kuroko’s hair, finding it just as soft.

Kuroko found himself relaxing even more as Aomine’s fingers stroked through his feathers, his eyes drooping a bit and he decided that maybe it was okay for Aomine to be just a little bit late to school.

 Aomine woke up an hour later, finding himself wrapped in a pair of white fluffy wings from the small angel in his arms. He wasn’t really sure if he wanted to wake Kuroko or not, considering the peaceful expression he had on as he slept. The constant ringing from his phone was what convinced him that he couldn’t stay nestled within the wings. He gently shook Kuroko’s shoulder trying to rouse him, “Hey, wake up,” he whispered.

Kuroko blinked, his eyes opened slowly to look at Aomine sleepily. “What’s that sound?” He mumbled.

“The sound of nagging,” Aomine inwardly groaned knowing it was Satsuki calling him about school.

Kuroko’s forehead scrunched up in confusion at that, but he sat up anyway, stretching as he did so with a yawn.

Being freed from the wing cocoon, Aomine reached for his phone to answer it, “What do you want, Satsuki?”

“Aomine-kun, why aren’t you at school? First period is already over!” Momoi practically shouted.

He had expected this but he still regretted picking up the phone. “I didn’t feel like going today,” He answered lazily.

“Don’t make me come there just to get you.” Momoi warned. Knowing Aomine, she probably would have to.

“You shouldn’t make your friend miss school if she wants to be there,” Kuroko told him, frowning a bit. “We should just go.”

Aomine groaned at having _two_ people on his case about school. He wasn't used to one. He could handle one. Two was too many. “Fine! I’ll be there sometime today.” He hung up before Satsuki could nag him about ‘as soon as possible’ and glared at the angel. “Do you _have_ to take her side?”

Kuroko looked calmly back at Aomine. “Yes. Because you should be in school,” Kuroko replied evenly, looking far more awake than he had a moment ago.

Aomine groaned again and got up to take a shower. A few minutes later he emerged clad in only a towel wrapped around his hips and another that he ran through his hair to dry it. “Hey, do you know where I threw my uniform yesterday?”

Kuroko took one glance and then refused to keep on looking at Aomine as he silently pointed to the pile of clothing from the day before, hoping that there wasn’t a blush on his face.

Aomine smirked seeing the bright red blush on Kuroko’s face. “Like what you see?” He would admit that Kuroko was pretty easy on the eyes, at least when he wasn’t trying to nag him.

Kuroko knew he was blushing now, and ducked his head to hide it, his wings coming up on instinct to block his face from view.

Aomine shamelessly closed the door and dropped both of his towels onto the bed, next to Kuroko. He turned around to search for a clean pair of underpants while giving Kuroko a very clear view of his naked behind and backside.

Kuroko _may_ have peeked over the edge of one of his wings. But only for a second. Then he went back to hiding behind them to keep things from being awkward.

Aomine managed to find a pair of clean boxer briefs, jammed at the back of his closet and put them on agonizingly slowly. He did the same with the rest of his uniform before finally turning back to Kuroko, only to find a white, feathery ball. He chuckled slightly, trying to peel the wings apart.

Kuroko’s eyes widened when his wings were suddenly grabbed and pushed apart, revealing him to Aomine while he was still blushing.

“You’re kinda cute like this.” Aomine chuckled again, once he saw Kuroko’s face.

Kuroko didn’t know what to say to that, so he didn’t. He cleared his throat and looked away before saying, “Are you ready to go? I think your friend might get mad if you don’t get there soon.”

“She’s probably gonna be mad no matter what when I get there. It doesn’t really matter.” Aomine released the angel’s wings and picked up his bookbag anyway. He opted to actually use the door this time, knowing his parents wouldn’t be home anymore. He turned to look at the angel still on his bed, “You coming? Or did you wanna stay here?”

“I’m coming,” Kuroko replied, getting to his feet and following Aomine out the door.

* * *

Aomine was right. Satsuki was mad despite it only being half an hour since she’d called. “Why can’t you be on time just _once?!”_

He gave her an exasperated look, “Why should I be? It’s not like it really matters.”

“It does matter! You know I worry about you when you’re like this!” Momoi could feel her face going red from the frustration. Why was Aomine like this?

“Really? Do they really matter? Because I don’t see how they do.” He really didn’t. Why should he care about school or practice anyway?

“It’s been awhile since I’ve watched over someone in school, but I think the general reason that it’s considered important is that the grades you make affect your future,” Kuroko said calmly.

“Who asked you?!” Aomine growled towards Kuroko, causing Kuroko to glance at Momoi with a hint of worry.

Momoi stared at him worried, “Aomine-kun, who are you talking to?” She looked to where he had directed his anger but saw only air.

Aomine caught his mistake and turned to storm away, “No one! It’s nothing!” He shouted over his shoulder.’

“You shouldn’t talk to me in front of people,” Kuroko told him, walking quickly to keep up with Aomine.

“I forgot, okay?!” Aomine made a beeline for the roof, despite having only just arrived at school. He jostled the rusty lock to the door a bit, getting it to loosen.

Kuroko frowned, and reached out to gently grab Aomine’s arm. “You’re supposed to go to class.”

Aomine shrugged his hand off, “I’ll go later!” He wasn’t really sure if he would but he knew he definitely didn’t want to to go right now. He laid himself down on the concrete on the rooftop and stared at the sky, trying to will his anger away.

“No,” Kuroko said firmly. “You need to go _now._ What was the point of even getting your uniform if you’re just going to hang out here all day anyway?”

“Well at least I’m at the school! At least I got here!” Kuroko really wasn’t helping with his attempts at calming down.

“Why is that better if you’re not doing anything here?” Kuroko asked with a tilt of his head.

Aomine couldn’t take this. He couldn’t take having another Satsuki following him around, in an instant of blind rage he felt his arm lash out to strike Kuroko. “Stop!”

Kuroko stumbled back, hand raising to his jaw where Aomine’s fist had just collided with him, and wings instantly forming a shield around him to block another blow. The look he gave Aomine was mostly shock, but there was a hint of betrayal and hurt in his eyes too.

Aomine faltered, realizing what he had just done. “What? No. No, wait!” He could see the betrayal in Kuroko’s eyes as he backed away from him. “Wait, no! It was an accident.” His voice started to waver a bit at the end. “I’m… I’m sorry...” He mumbled, looking away from Kuroko’s eyes.

Kuroko wasn’t sure what to do. The last time he had been punched it was because he had punched Kagami first. And he wasn’t sure how one accidentally punched someone. He just stood there, watching Aomine for what would happen next, wings still acting as a feathery shield in case Aomine tried again.

Aomine stumbled back a bit, away from Kuroko. He couldn’t be around Kuroko right now. He couldn’t be around those eyes. He bolted back down the stairs that lead to the roof and ran towards the courtyard. He hid himself in his second preferred sleeping place while on school grounds, in the tree near the soccer field.

Kuroko stayed frozen for a few minutes before slowly sitting down on the roof, still a bit stunned by what had just happened. He stayed there for a few hours until school let out, before he cautiously approached Aomine, jaw already healed. “Hello,” He said quietly, standing under the tree.

Aomine hadn’t been able to sleep a wink. He sat up to look down at Kuroko, still not quite sure if he actually wanted to meet his eyes. “Hey,” he muttered.

“Can we play some basketball today?” He asked to try and get things back to normal.

Aomine let his eyes slowly meet Kuroko’s, he was still wracked with guilt. “You sure you want to?”

Kuroko nodded, putting a bit more conviction into his voice this time. “Of course. I plan to win,” He declared.

Aomine smiled a bit with a scoff, “You’re funeral,” he simply stated.

Kuroko brightened instantly at the small smile, eyes lighting up like stars. “You smiled,” He said ecstatically, a smile forming on his own face. “I was right. It does look better on you than your usual scowl.”

“Yeah... I guess I did.” He jumped down from the tree to ruffle Kuroko’s hair, “Maybe you can fix me after all.”

Kuroko ducked his head when Aomine messed with his hair, trying to get it back in place. “Will you do it again?” He asked, looking at Aomine hopefully.

“Maybe if you can get it out of me,” Aomine headed to one of the gyms, the one that wouldn’t be occupied. He didn’t particularly like playing in his uniform but he didn’t want to deal with running into his team members.

“How do I do that?” Kuroko asked, trailing along behind Aomine and looking around the gym.

“I don’t know. You managed to earlier, which is a lot more than I can say for anybody else currently in my life.” Aomine opened the storage room to take out one of the balls and passed it Kuroko. “I think you can do it again.”

Kuroko caught the ball and looked at Aomine curiously. “Do you mind if I play a little differently today?” He asked.

Aomine gave him a skeptical look, “If you think it’ll help you.” Aomine would take any type of challenge at this point.

Kuroko nodded, and then flew off the ground with the ball, going over one of the hoops and dropping it in. “In that case. Two points for me,” He declared.

Aomine was dumbfounded, “Isn’t that cheating?” He didn’t really mind it though.

“You said I could,” Kuroko pointed out.

“Tch, alright.” Aomine picked up the ball and raced across the court, faster than Kuroko could fly, and sunk the ball into the hoop with a one handed throw. “Let’s see if flying actually helps you.”

The game went on like that. Aomine still won, but Kuroko got a few more points than he had during the week prior. “Let’s keep going,” He said, landing next to Aomine when the other put the ball down.

Aomine had to admit, that was actually kind of… _fun._ He hadn’t remembered what it was like to have fun while playing basketball until now. Aomine directed a smile at Kuroko and nodded, picking the ball back up again.

Kuroko floated a few inches off of the ground in his excitement when he saw another smile from Aomine accompanied by him agreeing to keep playing. “I think I’m going to win this round,” He said confidently.

“In your dreams,” Aomine laughed.

“Angels don’t dream,” Kuroko told him, enjoying the sound of Aomine’s laugh.

“Well then, I guess you’ll just never see yourself winning,” Aomine dribbled the ball a few times and raced past Kuroko, dunking the ball into the hoop.

* * *

Aomine casually walked along side Kuroko who was a few inches off the ground. “Did you want something this time?” They were headed towards Maji Burger after playing three rounds of basketball.

“I don’t know what they sell except for what I've seen you eating,” Kuroko replied.

Aomine thought about what to get Kuroko. Looking at him, he probably couldn’t eat very much despite the fact that he didn’t need to eat at all. “I guess you can just take some of my food. Is there anything in particular you like the taste of from the times you’ve visited humans?”

Kuroko tilted his head as he thought about that for a moment. “Vanilla. I liked that when I watched over a human named Ogiwara,” Kuroko remembered.

Aomine nodded, making a mental note to get Kuroko a vanilla milkshake. He heard they were pretty good at Maji Burger. Once there he ordered the same thing he always ordered, ten burgers, fries and a drink, adding in a vanilla milkshake for Kuroko. “Tell me how you like this.” He handed Kuroko the milkshake once they were back in the privacy of his bedroom.

Kuroko took a sip of the cold drink  and looked at Aomine in awe. “Aomine-kun... Aomine-kun what is this?” He asked, looking back down at it in amazement before taking another long sip through his straw.

“A vanilla milkshake?” Aomine chuckled at Kuroko’s excitement over the drink. “I’m guessing you like it.”

Kuroko nodded in agreement, not bothering to stop drinking it to answer. That is, until he got a headache that made him stop immediately and set the drink down so that he could hold his head in his hands.

Aomine probably should’ve warned him about the pain of brain freeze but Kuroko was acting too cute for him to want to stop him. “Maybe you should slow down a bit with the drink, Tetsu,” Aomine laughed.

Kuroko looked up at Aomine and then at the drink. “The milkshake did that to me? But it was good! Why would it do that?” Human food was weird. And potentially evil.

“It only hurts if you drink too fast.” Aomine leaned over and ruffled Kuroko's hair. “It’ll go away in a few minutes.”

Kuroko pouted at him, but could already feel it starting to go away since his healing worked faster than a human’s. “But why? Why does it hurt?”

“I don’t know,” Aomine said after a bit of thought. He bit into his first burger, finishing it in three bites and started to unwrap the next one. “We call it brain freeze.”

“That sounds accurate,” Kuroko said, picking up the milkshake and sipping it slowly this time.

“Did you want to try to the actual food?” Aomine handed him one of his burgers as he scarfed down another one.

Kuroko looked at the burger curiously, unwrapping it and taking a bite. “I like the milkshake better,” He decided.  

Aomine had kind of expected that. He finished off the rest of his burgers and fries and took a bite of Kuroko’s burger which Kuroko was still holding. “If you’re not gonna eat it, I’ll finish it.”

“You can have it. I’d prefer my milkshake anyway,” Kuroko said, passing him the burger and continuing to happily sip on his milkshake.

Aomine finished it off quickly, bunching all the wrappers and throwing them into the bag they came in.

“Can I use your shower? Playing against you is fun, but it’s also exhausting,” Kuroko said.

Aomine thought about their games earlier and remembered seeing Kuroko sweating pools. Aomine nodded throwing Kuroko one of his clean shirts and pair of basketball shorts, “Go ahead.” He would probably try to nap a bit while Kuroko was gone.

Kuroko looked at the shirt confused. “There aren’t wing holes,” He said.

“Well… Yeah. I don’t have wings.” Aomine stated like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“I do,” Kuroko said, his wings flapping a bit to illustrate that point.

Aomine stared at the shirt for a bit and after deciding that he didn’t care about it too much, he dug around his bedside drawer while waving Kuroko to come closer.

Kuroko looked at him curiously as he walked over, peering into the drawer.

Aomine pulled out a pair of scissors and grabbed the shirt, cutting two jagged holes into the back. “How’s this?” He asked, presenting the shirt to Kuroko.

Kuroko inspected the holes size before nodding. “Those should work. Thank you,” Kuroko replied.

Aomine handed Kuroko back the shirt and laid back down on the bed. “The bathroom is to your right,” he called out to Kuroko, realizing he forgot to tell Kuroko where it was. When he heard the sound of a door closing, he let his eyes shut and he quickly fell asleep.

Kuroko got back and carefully climbed into the bed, trying not to wake Aomine up as he did so.

Aomine instinctively rolled closer to the warmth and slung his arm around it, pulling it closer to him. He nuzzled his face into Kuroko’s hair and mumbled a sleepy, “G’night, Tetsu.”

Kuroko smiled softly. “Goodnight, Aomine-kun.” His wings wrapping around both of them as he slowly drifted off as well.


	3. Chapter 3

The week passed by in a blur. They spent most of it continuing the same routine they had established, Kuroko slowly getting better during their games and managing to get more and more baskets as they continued to play but still unable to beat Aomine. They went to Maji Burger after almost every game except for the one day Aomine's mom made his favorite dinner, much to the disappointment of Kuroko who didn't get his milkshake.

The weekend came and Aomine woke up finding himself, once again, surrounded in a world of white feathers. He looked down at the sleeping Kuroko in his arms, and chuckled at the sight of his hair sticking up in weird angles. He ran a hand through it and nuzzled back into it. Kuroko’s hair was _really_ soft.

Kuroko slowly woke up to the feeling of something touching his hair, he tilted his head up, which put him nose to nose with Aomine since apparently the thing touching his hair was Aomine’s face.

“Morning,” Aomine mumbled, not moving his face away. “I like your hair.”

“It’s a mess, isn’t it?” Kuroko asked, contemplating closing his eyes again to go back to sleep because he felt safe, warm, and comfortable in Aomine’s arms.

“It is. But it’s soft and the mess is kinda cute.” He ruffled it a bit to emphasis his point.

“You’re making it messier,” Kuroko whined, hiding his face in the crook of Aomine’s neck.

“It’s not that bad.” Aomine continued to run his fingers through it and buried his nose into the soft locks. Today seemed like a good day to just stay in bed all day. He didn’t have school too so that meant he didn’t have to deal with constant nagging.

“Do we have to get up? Is there school?” Kuroko asked, eyes already closed, even though he was ready to get up and drag Aomine to school if he needed to today.

“No, not today. We can stay in bed.” Aomine reached one hand behind Kuroko to softly stroke his wings. He _really_ liked them.

Kuroko relaxed further at the touch, nodding. “Okay, good. Can we play basketball later? I wanna win eventually. And I think I’m getting closer.”

Aomine didn’t really want to get out of bed at all today but games with Kuroko were pretty fun, which was a lot more than he could say about any other game he’d played in the past two years. “Sure. If we keep playing maybe you’ll actually win one day. Like maybe in a few years,” he joked.  

“How dare you? I’m gonna win today, just for that,” He mumbled, not sure how much of that, if any, actually came out of his mouth since he was quickly drifting back to sleep as Aomine stroked his wings.

“If that helps you sleep better, then you can keep thinking that.” Aomine let himself press a soft kiss to Kuroko’s forehead and closed his eyes, ready to go back to sleep.

* * *

A few hours later, Kuroko woke up again and started poking Aomine’s cheek to wake him up to play basketball. “Aomine-kun. Aomine-kun, wake up.”

Aomine grabbed the thing that was poking him in the cheek and held it. He snuggled his face closer to soft hair his nose was buried in and managed to mutter a sleepy “No.”

Kuroko pouted at Aomine. “But you said we could play basketball,” He said, trying to pull his hand free to continue to poke Aomine.

Aomine slowly opened his eyes to see the small pout on Kuroko’s face. It was kind of cute. “Fine, fine,” He relented. He released Kuroko’s hand and sat up to stretch a bit.

Kuroko sat up too, wings fluttering a little to get rid of any stiffness as he stretched as well.

Aomine checked his phone to find it to be about roughly noon. Most street ball courts were probably busy. “We should probably eat first before we play.” He thought about his statement for a second and fixed it, “Well, I should eat anyway. You can if you want to.”

Kuroko nodded, getting to his feet and offering his hand to help Aomine up.

Aomine took the hand and watched as Kuroko struggled to pull him up. He wasn’t exactly making it easy for him. “Having a little trouble?” He teased.

“You could _help_ a little bit,” Kuroko said, tugging a bit harder to try pull Aomine up.

Aomine jerked his arm and pulled Kuroko towards him causing Kuroko to give a surprised yelp as he fell. Aomine caught him in a hug and fell back down onto the bed. He looked up at Kuroko with a smug smirk, tightening his arms around him teasingly.

Kuroko blinked a few times to get over his surprise before he said, “We were supposed to be getting out of bed,” in a flat tone.

“Yeah...” Aomine hummed, “But I kinda like the view from here.”

Kuroko blushed at that, and turned his head away so that Aomine couldn’t see it, trying to get back up.

Aomine chuckled a bit at Kuroko’s blush and watched as he struggled to get out his arms. “Having a little trouble?”

“You’re a terrible human,” Kuroko decided, giving up and resting his face on Aomine’s chest. “I can think of very few humans who would so openly mock a celestial being like you are doing.”

“Maybe you should try being less cute when you’re mocked.” Aomine threaded his finger through Kuroko’s hair again.

“I’m not trying to be cute. You would know if I was trying to be cute,” Kuroko said indignantly.

“Then aren’t you glad to know some of the cute is just natural.”

Kuroko frowned, and then lifted his face from Aomine’s chest to look at him through his lashes. “Daiki, can’t we please go play basketball?” He asked with an intentional pout.

Aomine stared at Kuroko dumbstruck and mesmerized, “Uh...” While distracted, his grip loosened slightly and Kuroko sat up before getting off the bed.

“Told you that you’d know,” He said, watching Aomine expectantly while he waited for him to get up as well.

Aomine blinked out of his daze, finding Kuroko out of his arms and off the bed, staring back at him triumphantly. “That should be illegal,” he muttered but forced himself to get up anyway.

Kuroko just shrugged and went to pick up Aomine’s basketball. “But it’s not, and you couldn’t hold me to human laws if it were.”

“Tch,” was Aomine’s only response. Aomine went downstairs after quickly brushing his teeth to rummage around his fridge for food. He found some wrapped up rice balls from his mom and quickly devoured them, holding the last one up to Kuroko.

Kuroko eyed it curiously before taking it and eating a few bites. “It’s good,” He decided, although he still liked the milkshake from the night before better.

“Don’t wanna finish it?” Aomine asked over his shoulder as he filled up two water bottles for them.

Kuroko shook his head and held it out to Aomine. “You should eat it. It actually helps you; it just taste good to me.”

Aomine bent down, eating it out of Kuroko’s hand and headed for the door. “‘Kay let’s go. I think I know which streetball court might be empty right now. It’s kinda far though.”

Kuroko frowned at his hand that he was pretty sure Aomine had licked on purpose when he’d been eating the rice ball instead of just taking it from him like a normal person, but quickly followed him outside anyway. “I could fly us there if it’s going to take that long,” He offered.

Aomine looked at him skeptically. “Can you lift me?” He was pretty sure he was at least a few kilograms heavier than Kuroko.

“With some angel magic, yes,” Kuroko said with a nod.

Aomine wasn’t sure he liked the idea of having magic used on him, but he sure as hell was curious enough about it to agree. “‘Kay, then. I’d like to see this.”

Kuroko nodded, and wrapped his arms around Aomine from behind, before lifting both of them off the ground and high enough into the air that no one would notice a flying human. “Where are we going?” He asked.

After getting over the initial shock of being so far off the ground, Aomine wracked his brain to try and remember the general direction the court was in with his current new position. His sense of direction wasn’t the best so it took him a minute before he pointed to the right of them. “That way. I think.”

Kuroko may have been showing off a bit when he quickly flew through the air until he saw an empty basketball court and dived towards that, pulling up just in time to gently set Aomine down on the ground.

Aomine could only stare at Kuroko in amazement. That was… incredible. “Wow...” was the only word he could utter still entranced from the experience.

Kuroko beamed at him, landing on the ground next to Aomine. “Hope you enjoyed the ride.”

Managing to shake himself out of his daze, Aomine nodded, “I did.” With a lazy flick of his wrist, he sunk the ball into the hoop and managed to look smugly at Kuroko, “Doesn’t mean you’re going to win though.”

Kuroko looked almost offended by that. “We haven’t started!” Kuroko protested, running after the ball.

“Even if you don’t count those points, I’ll still win,” Aomine simply stated. It was true. He hadn’t been able to lose a game since he was eleven. He didn’t think that would change anytime soon. He shook the thoughts away before they could dampen his mood. He didn’t need to think about things like this. Not right now.

“That’s what you think.” Kuroko picked up the ball and took off into the air, dunking it into the opposite hoop.

They went back and forth like that until they were both breathless and sweaty, sitting back to back in the middle of the court. Aomine still won, but the margin between their points was decreasing. “Told you, you wouldn’t win,” Aomine said between breaths, taking a sip from his water bottle and reveling in the feel of Kuroko’s wings pressed against his back.

“But I got closer. I still have a chance at beating you,” Kuroko said with determination clear on his face through the tiredness.

“Yeah... maybe in not a year. Maybe more like in a few months.” Aomine laughed, and offered Kuroko the water bottle, holding it out to him.

“I think I’ll win the next time,” Kuroko said. He didn’t really need it, but he took the water anyway, because it felt nice to drink something cold after playing ball against Aomine.

“You think that after every game. You really don’t plan to give up do you?” Aomine would be lying if he said he hadn’t expected Kuroko to at one point stop wanting to play with him.

“I say that after every game because I’m not giving up. I go into every game with you fully intending on winning it, so of course I tell you that I think I’ll win the next one,” Kuroko replied, passing the water bottle back to Aomine.

Kuroko’s mentality was kind of… refreshing. It had been so long since he’d played against someone who didn’t want to give up right after they played with him. He took the water bottle and took another sip. He could get used to having Kuroko around. “Maji Burger again? You didn’t get your milkshake yesterday.”

Kuroko’s tiredness seemed to almost vanish at the mention of getting a milkshake, and he quickly got to his feet, holding a hand out to Aomine. “Let’s go!”

Aomine couldn’t help but laugh. Sometimes Kuroko acted like a little kid. It was cute, he liked it. He took Kuroko’s hand and let him pull him up. “You wanna fly again or should we walk this time?”

“We probably shouldn’t if we’re going somewhere with people,” Kuroko mused. “They’d be very freaked out if someone just dropped from the sky.”

Aomine almost wanted to do it just to see the people’s expressions but agreed to walk. It took some time getting there but Kuroko looked so excited at the prospect of getting his milkshake, Aomine decided it was worth the long distance. He quickly ordered the same thing he always got and made a beeline for his house, handing Kuroko the milkshake once they were in his bedroom.

Kuroko remembered to sip slowly, but still looked just as happy as he always did when he got the milkshake. “Thank you for the milkshake, Aomine-kun.”

Aomine made an indistinguishable sound past his burger to say “no problem,” cramming a few fries into his mouth along with his burger.

Kuroko made a mildly disgusted face at the display, but quickly turned his attention back to the milkshake instead of focusing on the horrifying amount of food Aomine was shoving into his mouth.

Aomine paused his eating for a moment, noticing Kuroko’s face. “Wat? It tafes goo wike dis,” he managed to say with his mouth full.

Kuroko scooted a few inches away from him. Or to the other side of the bed. Same difference.

Aomine swallowed his mouthful, and pushed his last few burgers aside. He tackled Kuroko down onto the bed and playfully kissed his cheek. “You don’t think I’m handsome with my face full of food?“

“No, it’s gross,” Kuroko told him, trying in vain to hold in his laughter as he struggled to get out from under Aomine.

Aomine laughed at Kuroko’s attempt and flipped them over so that Kuroko was on top. “How about now?”

“You don’t have food shoved in your face right now,” Kuroko pointed out, propping himself up on his elbows.

“So what I’m hearing is, you think I’m handsome,”Aomine smirked.

“Yes,” Kuroko said simply.

Aomine hummed in response, pleased by Kuroko’s answer, his smirk not fading. “Well, you’re not too bad on the eyes either.”

Kuroko gave him a small smile at that. “Thank you,” He said, rolling off of Aomine so that he was laying next to him, looking at his crushed milkshake cup, glad that he had finished it already.   

Aomine rolled onto his side to look at Kuroko. He held Kuroko’s hand in his, tracing random patterns along the back of it with his thumb. He hadn’t really expected to come to like Kuroko so much. Then again, he also hadn’t expected anyone to successfully get him out of his angry slump. “I’m… glad that you were sent here.”

“I’m glad I was too,” Kuroko said with a tiny smile, turning on his side to face Aomine as well. “But can I use your shower, because we both smell gross from playing basketball.”

“Are you suggesting we take one together?” Aomine waggled his eyebrows, chuckling a bit.

Kuroko blushed bright red. “I was not. I was suggesting separate showers.”

“You sure? ‘Cause I wouldn’t mind one together.” Aomine pressed a kiss to Kuroko’s cheek and gave him a flirty smile.

Kuroko blushed even more and tried to scoot away a bit, without remembering that he was on the edge of the bed, and ended up falling off with a small thud and a flurry of feathers.

Aomine rolled onto his back laughing loudly. “You’re great, Tetsu,” He managed to say between laughs. He inched himself over to the edge of the bed to look down at Kuroko, continuing to laugh once he saw his pout.

“And you’re mean. A good person would help me back up, not laugh at me,” Kuroko replied.

“I never said I was a good person,” Aomine grinned.

Kuroko pouted more, and started to sit up, wincing a bit when he noticed that he’d fallen kind of awkwardly on one of his wings and looked at the ruffled feathers with a frown.

Aomine felt his grin fade when he noticed that Kuroko looked slightly in pain, “Did you hurt yourself?” He sat up to better inspect him.

“My wing. It’ll be fine. I heal faster than humans.” He ran his fingers over the feathers to try and get an idea of how bad it was, flinching a little when he made contact with the wing.

Aomine hesitantly reached out to the wing to place gentle fingers on the part that Kuroko had just touched. He gently squeezed it, massaging it. “Does this help?”

At first it hurt more, but then his wings drooped a bit since the tension was starting to leave, and he nodded in answer to Aomine’s question.

Aomine continued to massage Kuroko’s wing, getting distracted by the softness of the feathers and the relaxed expression Kuroko was making. He blinked himself out of his daze when he noticed that he had stopped massaging and was just feeling the wing. “Uh, so you wanted to take a shower?”

Kuroko blinked a few times, coming out of the daze he had fallen into. “Huh? Oh, right.” He got up. “Can I have another pair of clothes?”

Aomine got up and dug around in his closet, making more of a mess as he went. He managed to find a clean tank top and a pair of basketball shorts, throwing them to Kuroko, who left after catching the clothes.

The tank top was big enough on him that he didn’t even have to cut it up. He could slip both his wings and his arms through the sleeves and just have the back of the shirt bunch up between his wings. “Your turn,” Kuroko announced as he came out of the shower, drying his hair with a towel.

Aomine peeked up from the magazine he was reading, nodding and walking past Kuroko to the bathroom. He took a quick shower and came out a few minutes later, once again, only clad in a towel. He dug around his closet looking for clothes and managed to find something clean on the floor. Shamelessly, he changed in front of Kuroko, turning around to look at him once he was done. “Why are you a white ball?”

Kuroko peeked out from behind his wings when Aomine talked to him, and then let them unfurl when he saw that Aomine was clothed. “It’s rude to watch people change.”  

“Is it? I’m changing knowing that you’re there. Isn’t it only rude if I didn’t know?” Aomine looked genuinely confused.

“I think it falls under the category of it being rude to stare at people,” Kuroko mused.

“And if I wanted you to stare?” Aomine gave him a flirty smile.

Kuroko’s wings wrapped around him again when he started blushing and didn’t want Aomine to see.

Aomine walked over to Kuroko, gently peeling his wings apart and collapsed on him, pushing him down onto the bed. “You know you shouldn’t be allowed to be this cute.”

“Aomine-kun, you’re crushing me,” Kuroko complained, squirming under him to try and get free.

Aomine looked unbothered by Kuroko’s complaint, giving him a cheeky smile. He didn’t move an inch from his position on top of Kuroko. Instead he wrapped his arms around Kuroko’s waist, and hugged him closer.

“Aomine-kun!” Kuroko whined, pushing at his chest with his hands.

Aomine figured he’d tortured Kuroko enough. It definitely wasn’t because the whine was really cute that convinced him. He flipped them over and scooted up towards his pillow. “Better?” He kept his arms securely around Kuroko, however.

Kuroko settled down on top of Aomine, resting his head on his chest and listening to his heart beat. “Yes.”

“Good, I don’t really want to move.” Aomine shifted a bit to get more comfortable, bringing one hand up to stroke Kuroko’s wings and let his eyes drift close.


	4. Chapter 4

Aomine woke up, feeling an odd, comfortable weight on him. He looked down to see Kuroko still asleep in his arms, his hair still managing to stick up in weird angles despite being in his arms all night. Aomine could hear the loud ringing of his phone on his nightstand, knowing it was Satsuki telling him he better be on time for school today. He still didn’t really feel much motivation for going to school but he supposed he could at least try to at least attend one class. He poked Kuroko in the cheek to try and wake him up.

Kuroko slowly blinked his eyes opened to look sleepily at Aomine.

“I have school, and you don’t need any more beauty sleep,” Aomine was tempted to kiss Kuroko, but held himself back.

Kuroko looked surprised by this. “You’re willingly going to school? I don’t have to drag you there like I was planning?”

Aomine looked away from Kuroko’s eyes, “Yeah… I might as well try to go to at least one class this week.” It was a lot more than he did last week… and the week before.

Kuroko smiled brightly and got off of Aomine, holding out a hand to help him up. “Let’s go then.”

Aomine let him pull him up and lazily got dressed for school. Getting to school just before the bell rang got him the same reaction as Kuroko’s from Satsuki as well as a good half of his classmates.

“Y-you’re here! On time!” Momoi was tempted to check if the second coming of Christ was near, right now, anything was possible.

“Yeah... I’m trying, I guess.” He looked away awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head.

Kuroko, despite only Aomine being able to see him, was beaming next to him, clearly very proud of Aomine for going to school that day.

Momoi was bouncing with joy. He was _trying_. She didn’t know what had come over Aomine but she would thank every god for making it happen. Had they not been in school she probably would have glomped him. “I hope this lasts,” she forced herself to calm down a bit and went to sit at her desk, beaming one last smile to Aomine as she went.

Aomine gave a silent thank you to the fact that she couldn’t do much more than that. He knew she would’ve glomped him otherwise. He sat at his desk at the back of the class, mentally preparing himself for a long day of school.

Kuroko stuck around for the first few minutes, but quickly got bored and left, starting to wander around the school instead.

Aomine managed to half pay attention to his first class but fell asleep once the second started. Math was not something he enjoyed in any way.He woke up once he felt a sharp tap on the top of his head. He blearily looked up to see his teacher staring down at him.

“Please try to at least be awake for the one day you show up,” He said sternly before going back up to the front of the class.

Aomine shrugged, not really caring about what his teacher said, stretched and yawned. He did manage to stay awake until lunch break though.

When students suddenly started moving around Kuroko figured it was lunch and went in search of Aomine, looking around until he spotted his dark blue hair and walking up to stand beside him, keeping quiet since there were so many students around.

Aomine made a quick beeline to the roof. Once there and happily secluded from the large hoard of students, he fall back onto the ground and gave soft sigh of relief. He didn’t notice Kuroko until Kuroko positioned himself directly above Aomine to look down at him. He almost headbutted him from jumping up at the shock of seeing him.

Kuroko stepped back at the sudden movement. “I’m sorry for startling you, Aomine-kun,” Kuroko said, not looking sorry at all.

Aomine briefly entertained the idea of putting the angel in a choke hold. Kuroko wasn’t sorry at all, he actually looked mildly amused. Aomine decided he liked Kuroko better when he woke up in his arms. “Don’t do that to people. It’s not good for the heart.” Aomine let himself fall back to lay down again.

“Don’t do what?” Kuroko asked tilting his head. The attempt at looking innocent was slightly ruined by his lips twitching in an attempt to form a smirk that he was barely able to repress.

“You know exactly what I’m talking about you little fucker. Don’t even try that.” Aomine resolutely didn’t look in Kuroko’s direction, knowing Kuroko was trying to play cute.

Kuroko let mock hurt enter his voice. “That’s so rude, Aomine-kun! I would _never_ talk to you like that, and I don’t even know what I did to deserve it,” He said with a pout.

Aomine didn’t want to dignify that with a response. Instead he stood up, walked over to Kuroko and pinched both of his cheeks, giving him a smug grin as he did so.

“Ow!” Kuroko protested, batting at Aomine’s hands to try and get him to let go.

Aomine let go and pocketed his hands, smiling triumphantly. “You deserved it.”

“I didn’t,” Kuroko denied, a real pout on his face this time and he rubbed his sore cheeks.

Aomine pressed a chaste kiss to Kuroko’s cheek before lying down again. “Yes you did.”

Kuroko’s cheeks were now red for a completely different reason, and he decided not to answer that, sitting down with his back facing Aomine instead.

Aomine looked at Kuroko’s back through his peripheral vision with a smirk, “Does silence mean I win or do you want another kiss?”

“I did _not_ deserve that. It hurt,” Kuroko muttered, pulling his knees up to his chest and resting his chin on them.

“So you _do_ want another kiss?” Aomine sat up, slinging an arm around Kuroko’s shoulders, smirk still perfectly in place.

“I’m not quite convinced that you don’t do this kind of thing just to see me get flustered. You take too much enjoyment from that,” Kuroko informed him.

“It’s pretty cute,” Aomine admitted with a shrug, lowering the arm around Kuroko’s shoulders to around his waist and pulling him closer.

“It’s embarrassing,” Kuroko disagreed, letting Aomine move him closer.

“But also cute.” Aomine nosed Kuroko’s cheek, nuzzling it a bit.

Kuroko turned his head and pecked Aomine on the lips, deciding to be the one getting the upperhand this time.

Aomine froze, wide eyes stared back at Kuroko. “I- you- it-wha?” Aomine couldn’t really form any coherent sentences, even in his mind.

“Use your words, Aomine-kun,” Kuroko prompted.

Aomine ignored Kuroko’s words and instead opted to lean forward to connect their lips again, giving Kuroko a kiss that lasted much longer than the one Kuroko had given him.

When the kiss broke, Kuroko looked a bit dazed, and also wasn’t entirely on the ground anymore.

“You’re flying,” Aomine simply stated, trying to blink himself out of his own daze.

“I am?” Kuroko looked down, blinking a few times when he noticed that he was indeed an inch or two off the ground. He let himself fall back to the ground.

Aomine leaned in for another kiss but was interrupted by the loud ringing of the bell, signaling that lunch break was over. _Damn it_. “I’m skipping,” he announced trying to capture Kuroko’s lips with his own again.

It took Kuroko a moment to make himself pull back, but he managed. “No, you aren’t. Go to class.”

“But Tetsu!” He didn’t really make it a habit to whine but he would make an exception for this time. He tried to pin Kuroko down, only missing him by a large margin as Kuroko flew out of his reach.

“Class,” Kuroko said firmly, flying just above Aomine’s reach.

Aomine didn’t think he’d be able to reach Kuroko at this point no matter how hard he stretched. He relented with groan calling over his shoulder, “Fine. But kisses after school!” He turned around and promptly marched back to his classroom.

* * *

“Are we playing basketball?” Kuroko asked when he found Aomine after school.

Aomine didn’t say a word. He discreetly grabbed Kuroko’s arm and silently pulled him all the way to the nearest, empty streetball court and swiftly pressed their lips together.

Kuroko gasped in surprise when Aomine’s mouth was suddenly on him, but he quickly started kissing back, wrapping his arms around Aomine’s shoulders and flying a few inches off the ground so he wouldn’t have to stand on his tiptoes.

Aomine brought a hand up to cup Kuroko’s face and gently nudged his lips open with his tongue, slipping it into his mouth. His other hand gently massaged the base of Kuroko’s wings, stroking the spot where his back and wings connected.

Kuroko let out a small moan and tangled his fingers in Aomine’s hair. He wrapped his legs around Aomine’s waist to bring them even closer together.

Aomine parted their lips for air, pressing a soft kiss to Kuroko’s cheek and then his forehead. He leaned his forehead against Kuroko’s, looking into his eyes. “I told you kisses after school, didn’t I?” He whispered against Kuroko’s lips.

"You did," Kuroko agreed, sounding a little out of breath.

“So, did you want to play, or...” Aomine traced a line down Kuroko’s cheek with his nose and pressed a kiss to the corner of his mouth, “Did you want to keep going?”

Kuroko considered that for a moment. “Um... let’s play. We are at a street ball court after all.” Kuroko decided.

Aomine’s hand drifted lower, firmly gripping Kuroko’s ass and squeezing, “You sure?” he whispered against Kuroko’s ear before nibbling it.

Kuroko’s eyes widened in surprise and he felt his face heating up. “Yes?” He didn’t sound very sure though.

“You don’t sound like you are.” Aomine dragged his lips down from Kuroko’s ear to nibble at his collar bone.

“We’re in public. It’s going to look really weird if anyone walks by since they can’t see me,” Kuroko pointed out.

“Did you want us to _not_ be in public? We can move.” Aomine brought his lips back up to Kuroko’s cheek pecking it once and then pecking his lips, giving his butt another small squeeze.

Kuroko was very tempted to agree to that, but... “I still need to beat you at basketball,” He decided, finally untangling himself from Aomine to stand in front of him.

Aomine whined a bit at the loss of Kuroko but relented. “Fine. But...” He gave Kuroko a slow kiss on the lips mumbling against them, “don’t think I’ll go easy on you just ‘cause you’re a good kisser.” He turned to walk a few feet away, fully ready to play, smirking as he waited for Kuroko to move.

“I would be offended if you did,” Kuroko replied, getting the ball out of Aomine’s bag and taking off with it.

Kuroko managed to lessen the margin between their scores again, but Aomine still won in the end. Aomine had the mind to bring towels today, pulling both out and throwing one to Kuroko as he dried his sweat.

Kuroko sat down, taking deep breaths and mumbled a “Thank you” when he caught the towel. “Next time, for sure. I got closer today. Next time I’m winning.” Kuroko informed Aomine.

“If you say so,” Aomine responded. “You want to do what we normally do and go to Maji Burger or should we actually eat at home today?”

“Are there milkshakes at home?” Kuroko asked with a tilt of his head.

Aomine’s wallet silently cried at his mistake of introducing Kuroko to an addiction. “Probably not,” he begrudgingly said.

“Can we do what we usually do then?” He asked hopefully.

Aomine mentally calculated the money he had until his next allowance and nodded, “Yeah, we can.” He would just have to lessen his usual amount of burgers from ten to eight, not too much of a loss.

Kuroko smiled brightly and got to his feet, starting to walk in the direction of the fast food place.

Aomine followed, finding a little bit of hilarity at the fact that Kuroko was so used to their routine already that he could lead. They did their usual, buying the food and a milkshake and headed home to eat in his bedroom. “You ever going to get tired of that shake?” He asked past his mouthful.

Kuroko frowned, scooting away when Aomine talked with his mouth full. “If you keep on talking to me with your face full of food like that while I drink them, I might. I’ll just start associating them with being disgusted. Humans have a person who talked about that. Pavlov, I think.”

“You made out with this disgusting face,” Aomine said after swallowing, “You should be associating this thing with sexy.”

“Not when you talk with your mouth full,” Kuroko told him with a look of disgust.

“My face is sexy all the time,” Aomine declared resolutely as he ripped into his new burger.

Kuroko looked like he disagreed, but decided to finish off the last few sips of his milkshake instead of arguing after scooting another few inches away so that he was sitting on the edge of the bed.

Aomine noticed Kuroko trying to move away from him and quickly finished his burger, bunching up the wrapper and throwing it into the trash bag at the end of his bed. He wrapped an arm around Kuroko’s stomach pulling him back to the middle of the bed and pushed him down onto his back, pinning Kuroko’s arms above his head with one hand and sitting on his legs. “Tell me I’m sexy.”

Kuroko tested the grip on his wrist, finding that he would have to use his angel powers to get out of it, which was way too much work for this situation. “No, I just watched you talk with food in your mouth. Sexy is not the word that comes to mind,” He replied casually.

Aomine traced his free hand down the side of Kuroko’s chest, resting it on his waist. “Tell me I’m sexy,” he repeated, his voice lower than it had been earlier.

Kuroko blushed slightly and turned his head away to hide it. “I will not tell you any such thing.”

Aomine lowered his head down until he was only an inch away from Kuroko’s face. “How about...” without warning, Aomine wiggled his fingers against Kuroko’s waist and stomach, “now?”

Kuroko burst into laughter, writhing under Aomine to try and get free, not even thinking about his angel powers since he was too distracted by the tickling. “Stop! Stop!” He protested.

Aomine moved his head away from Kuroko’s in case he accidently head butted him. “Not until you admit that I’m always sexy!”

“Never!” Kuroko declared. He tried to glare at Aomine, but it was ruined by another fit of giggles.

“Admit it! Give in!” Aomine continued his onslaught around Kuroko’s stomach, trying his best to keep his position on Kuroko’s legs despite all the thrashing they were doing.

Kuroko let a bit of his powers show through, and flipped them so that he was pinning Aomine instead, grinning down at him. “Tell me I’m sexy,” He mocked.

Aomine blinked a few times to come out of the shock of being flipped over. He looked at Kuroko and smirked, “Now _that_ was sexy.”

Kuroko pouted down at him. “You were supposed to say that I am sexy,” He complained.

“I didn’t say you weren’t,” Aomine said simply, smirk still in place.

“But you didn’t say that I was either,” Kuroko argued.

“Maybe I need a little more convincing,” Aomine winked, placing his hands on Kuroko’s hips.

Kuroko let his pout intensify, tears forming in his eyes and looked down at Aomine’s chest instead of his face. “You don’t think I’m sexy.” He mumbled sadly, peeking up at Aomine through wet lashes.

A part of Aomine knew that this was one of Kuroko’s manipulation tactics, but a bigger part of him didn’t really care. He reached up to Kuroko’s face to gently lower it to his own, biting Kuroko’s lower lip, pulling it a bit before releasing it. “You’re sexy, but you really shouldn’t try acting cute when you want to be called sexy,” he whispered against Kuroko’s lips.

“But it worked, didn’t it?” Kuroko replied, smiling a bit and kissing Aomine’s cheek.

“I guess,” Aomine shrugged, hugging Kuroko to his chest and turning onto his side, bringing Kuroko with him. “You should still do something more sexy when you want someone to call you sexy.”

Kuroko considered that before lifting Aomine’s shirt and licking his way from the top of his pants to his collarbone where he started sucking to leave a hickey. “Like that?” He asked, after nipping at the spot and then looking back up at Aomine’s face.

Aomine groaned partly from the surprise but mostly from the sensation of having Kuroko’s lips on his body. “Yeah, like that. But you know,” he rolled over again so that he was on top of Kuroko once more. “you really shouldn’t start things you don’t plan on finishing,” he whispered next to Kuroko’s ear, nipping at it and moving to lick down Kuroko’s neck.

Kuroko gasped, arching his back to press them closer together and tilting his head to give Aomine better access to his neck.

Aomine sucked on Kuroko’s pulse point, nipping at it and moved a hand under Kuroko’s shirt, feeling the smooth skin underneath.

Kuroko let out a small moan, wrapping his legs around Aomine’s hips, tangling his fingers in Aomine’s hair and pulling lightly.

Aomine lifted Kuroko’s shirt up to lick down his chest, stopping at the top of Kuroko’s pants. He hooked two fingers around the waistband and looked up to meet Kuroko’s eyes, silently asking for permission.

Kuroko was about to nod yes when something occurred to him. He would have to leave. He was going to have to leave eventually, and probably not even very long from now. He couldn’t do this with Aomine. Not when Aomine didn’t know that. “I-I think we should stop there,” He said hesitantly, blush forming on his face as he realized what he had been about to do.

Aomine frowned but nodded. He sat back up with a sigh, pulling Kuroko’s shirt back down and collapsing to lay next to him. “Can I at least ask why or is that gonna hurt my ego?”

“It’s not you. Trust me, it’s really not,” He said the last part looking Aomine up and down, but dragged his gaze away to continue. “ I just don’t think it’s really a good idea,” Kuroko told him.

Aomine had a feeling he wouldn’t like the answer, if he got an answer at all, but he decided to press on, “Why not?”

Kuroko didn’t want to bring it up. At least not right now, so he just shrugged, cuddling up to Aomine to try and distract him, resting his head of his chest and closing his eyes.

Yeah, he didn’t think he’d get an answer. He wrapped his arms around Kuroko, accepting that Kuroko didn’t want to talk about it anymore. He supposed he could ask him another time or maybe they’d actually be able to finish another time. For now they could drop the topic.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We'd like to apologize for how long it took to post this chapter but as it is right now, both of us are going over how to fix one of the later chapters. That being said, it's unfortunate but please expect chapters to come out slowly for the time being.

The next few days went the same as they usually did. Aomine was nagged at to go to school, he and Kuroko played basketball until dusk, with Aomine winning and they went home with Maji Burger for dinner. Aomine didn’t notice anything different or wrong during those days until he tried to flirt with Kuroko as he usually did. He wrapped his arms around Kuroko’s waist, hugging him from behind, “How good is this thing anyway?” He asked as he leaned over to steal some of Kuroko’s milkshake from over his shoulder.

“Good enough that I’m not sharing.” Kuroko replied, moving it out of Aomine’s reach.

“C’mon Tetsu, sharing is caring.” He snaked one of arms along Kuroko’s, trying to take it from Kuroko.

“I disagree wholeheartedly with this statement, and reject it completely. I feel no need to share this with you.” Kuroko said, moving it into his other hand.

Aomine continued to try and reach for the drink, keeping Kuroko distracted and slowly moved to connect his lips to the side Kuroko’s neck, pressing slow kisses along it.

Kuroko tilted his head to give Aomine better access without even thinking about it, lips parting a bit but no sound leaving.

Aomine sucked on Kuroko’s neck, leaving a red spot in the same place he had left one a few days ago before it healed up. He kissed down and traced a line along his shoulder with his tongue, moving Kuroko’s shirt aside as he did so.

Kuroko was about to turn around to start kissing Aomine before he remembered that he had resolved to stop doing this with him, and pulled out of his arms, starting to sip on his milkshake again.

“Tetsuuu!” Aomine whined at the loss. He didn’t really care if he was acting childish, he wanted kisses.

“Yes, Aomine-kun?” Kuroko replied around the straw of his milkshake, tongue darting out to catch a drop on his lower lip.

Aomine’s eyes focused in on the small action. _Fuck_. He grabbed Kuroko’s arm, pulling him back towards him, immediately connecting their lips. He bit down on Kuroko’s bottom lip and slipped his tongue into his mouth.

Kuroko let out a small moan, his resolve wavering a bit, but he made himself pull back reluctantly.

“Tetsu?” Aomine was really confused. Kuroko didn’t mind kissing before, he thought they were only avoiding sex.

“Aomine-kun?” Kuroko replied, sitting back to put a few inches between them.

“Why’d you stop?” Aomine was tempted to pull Kuroko back to him but was almost sure he would move away again.

“To drink this.” Kuroko lied, sipping at the vanilla milkshake and not meeting Aomine’s eyes.

Aomine didn’t fully believe that but let it slide. “I should start limiting how many of those you’re allowed to have,” Aomine responded indignantly.

Kuroko looked offended by that comment. “You should do no such thing.”

“I wonder what it would be like. Going a few days, maybe _weeks_ without Maji Burger,“ Aomine mused, ignoring Kuroko’s comment. He leaned back on his bed, perching himself against the wall, trying not to laugh at Kuroko’s frown.

“Daiki hates me.” Kuroko told his milkshake sadly.

If there was anything that was actually keeping Aomine from making anymore moves on Kuroko for the rest of the night, the mention of his first name officially broke it. Aomine pounced on top of Kuroko, moving the milkshake to his bedside table and kissed him briefly before moving to kiss down his neck and latching his lips onto Kuroko’s collarbone. “Say it again,” he mumbled before reattaching his lips to Kuroko’s skin.

“Daiki.” Kuroko gasped out, trying to remember why he didn’t want to be doing this, and failing.

Aomine let out a growl of approval, removing himself from Kuroko for a second to pull Kuroko’s shirt off and over his wings.

Kuroko tangled his fingers in Aomine’s hair and pulled him closer to connect their mouths, using his tongue to part Aomine’s lips and then started sucking on Aomine’s tongue.

Aomine moaned as his hands roamed over Kuroko’s bare chest. He was about to lower his hands towards Kuroko’s pants but then stopped. He reluctantly parted his lips from Kuroko’s. “Are… you sure you want to do this?” Kuroko had avoided his advances earlier. He didn’t want to do this unless Kuroko was completely sure he did as well.

“I...” Kuroko wasn’t sure what he wanted. He wanted Aomine, but he also knew that was a bad idea. Even just what they were doing now was a bad idea, so with a look of regret he slowly shook his head. “No.” He decided.

That was what Aomine expected. He pulled away, looking around and then handing Kuroko his shirt. They settled for what they had done the other previous nights, cuddling to sleep. Before Aomine fully drifted off, he felt a bad feeling in his gut, one that he was hoping was just a feeling and nothing more.

* * *

His gut feeling was right. For the next couple of days, Kuroko avoided all of his advances. How he acted wasn’t much different for most of the day, it only changed when Aomine tried to get touchy. Kuroko would remove himself from Aomine grasp and act distant.

By the fifth day he had had enough. He woke up to the usual sight of white feathers encompassing him and Kuroko. It was his day off from school so he was ready to not move until noon. He looked down to Kuroko in his arms still fast asleep. Entranced by peaceful expression Kuroko had, he leaned down and pressed a soft kiss to Kuroko’s forehead, then his cheek and then finally his lips.

“Mmm, no, I’m still sleeping, Daiki.” Kuroko mumbled the complaint, keeping his eyes closed as he started to drift back to the sleep that Aomine had just pulled him from, pulling the covers up over his face.

“Just a few kisses, then more sleep,” Aomine whispered. He moved under the blanket with Kuroko, slowly kissing him all over his face and pulling him back into a hug to cuddle.

“Noooo. Sleep.” Kuroko whined, scrunching his eyes shut tight to try and ward off the awakeness starting to seep into him.

“One more kiss?” Aomine asked, his nose barely touching Kuroko’s.

“ _Sleep._ ”  Kuroko repeated, curling up into a tiny ball.

“Just one more,” Aomine kissed Kuroko’s hair, the most he could do with Kuroko’s new ball form.

Kuroko peeked up at Aomine with blurry vision and sleepy eyes. “Why won’t you let me sleep, Daiki? I’m a nice person. I deserve sleep.”

Aomine quickly stole a kiss on Kuroko’s lips and moved back to just simply cuddle Kuroko close to him. “Now you can sleep,” he answered, resting his chin on top of Kuroko’s head.

“Doesn’t get me back the sleep I just lost because of you.” Kuroko complained, eyes closing again, but he was pretty sure Aomine had woken him up for good.

“Well then we can sleep in extra,” Aomine started to slowly stroke where Kuroko’s back and wings met, trying to lull him back to sleep.

Kuroko still felt pretty awake, but relaxed under Aomine’s touch anyway, eyes drifting shut again.

Aomine nuzzled Kuroko’s hair and could feel himself drifting back to sleep, feeling content.

Kuroko got up about an hour later, yawning and stretching, which ended up with him falling off of the bed, looking a mix of bewildered and puzzled as he tried to figure out how he had gotten there.

Aomine woke when he heard a loud thud. He bolted up and frantically looked around his room to find the source the sound. Looking down he found Kuroko on the ground looking mildly confused and pouting. "How’d you end up there?“ He tried not to laugh.

“I don’t know.” Kuroko mumbled, wrapping his wings around himself and crossing his arms over his chest.

Aomine got out of bed and picked Kuroko up despite his wrapped up ball form. He sat back down on the edge of his bed, placing Kuroko in his lap. “Better now?” He asked, placing a kiss on his cheek.

“No. I still don’t know how I got there. I’m just not there anymore.” Kuroko replied.

“Maybe you rolled too much,” Aomine shrugged, “It would explain this bed hair.” He ruffled Kuroko’s hair a bit before just simply running his fingers through it.

“You’re making it worse.” Kuroko complained, trying to smooth down his hair, which was a wasted effort since Aomine was still running his fingers through it.

“It’s cute,” Aomine laughed, kissing Kuroko on the cheek again.

“It’s not.” Kuroko ducked his head to shield his cheeks.

“It is,” Aomine argued, grabbing the hand in Kuroko’s hair to kiss it. He held the hand, tangling their fingers together and kissed his cheek again.

Kuroko moved out of Aomine’s lap, flopping down across the bed instead, wings wrapping around himself again.

And there it was again. Kuroko was avoiding him. “Tetsu, why can’t I kiss you?” Aomine frowned.

Kuroko peeked out from around his wings. “You’ve been kissing me a lot this morning.” He pointed out.

“You didn’t mind that when I first started doing it though. Why do you suddenly not like it now?”

“It’s not that I don’t like it.” Kuroko rushed to reassure him, but an actual explanation died in his throat.

“Then why?” Aomine had assumed Kuroko had just lost interest in him but if that wasn’t the case then what was it?

Kuroko sat up, and looked down at the bed. He had debating with himself for a while now on how to tell Aomine. He definitely deserved to know, Kuroko just wasn't sure when a good time would be, if there was a good time at all for something like this. “Guardian angels don’t stay forever. It’s not fair to either of us to do that when I’m going to have to leave.”

Aomine froze, he wasn’t really sure he heard that right, wasn’t sure if he wanted to hear that right. “Leave?” Was the only word he could utter.

“We come to help, we fix things, we leave, we come back to fix something else. Eventually I’ll have to leave.” He explained, sadness infecting his tone despite his best efforts to repress it.

_Tetsu… had to… leave?_ Aomine could only stare at Kuroko, unable to move, and only barely able to speak. “That’s… that’s not… I mean-” his mind was moving too quickly for him to say anything coherent. Stiffly, he forced his hand to reach out to Kuroko, pulling him back towards him and hugged him with everything he had.

Kuroko was a little surprised by the hug, and it also hurt a little, but he hugged Aomine back just as tight, his wings going around the two of them almost protectively.

“How long?” Aomine managed to choke out. He buried his face into Kuroko’s shoulder. He couldn’t lose Kuroko. He didn’t want to lose Kuroko. Kuroko was the only reason he had started smiling again, he couldn’t leave.

“I don’t know. Whenever I get called back.” Kuroko told him. He imagined it would be soon. Aomine was going to class again. He’d been smiling. He was playing basketball. It wouldn’t be long before he was called back.

“How can I stop it?” He wasn’t ready to accept the fact that he would be losing Kuroko just yet. He wasn’t sure if he could accept it at all.

“As far as I’m aware, you can’t.” Kuroko told him, running his fingers through Aomine’s hair.

That wasn’t the answer he wanted but even he, in his heartbroken, half thinking mind, knew that it was useless to try and change this. He couldn’t fight something, or someone he didn’t even fully understand as a concept. He clung to Kuroko, one hand in his hair, the other near his wings, fruitlessly wishing that he could find someway to keep Kuroko with him.

* * *

Aomine picked at his fries, not really hungry or motivated to eat. He and Kuroko had spent the entire day yesterday just holding each other, trying but failing to console one another. They had skipped basketball today and ended up just getting Maji Burger right after school. He had only gotten himself two burgers with fries and had only managed to eat half of his first one.

Kuroko halfheartedly sipped at his milkshake, not finding the same joy in it that he usually did. He moved a bit closer to Aomine, pressing himself up against the other’s side.

Aomine snuggled up to Kuroko, wrapping an arm around him and leaned his head against Kuroko’s. He didn’t feel the same warmth from holding Kuroko as he usually did. They were both too cold for it.

Kuroko silently held out the milkshake to Aomine, offering to let him try it to try and lighten the mood a little bit.

Aomine accepted the offer taking a small sip.”Thanks,” he muttered. It was sweet, not really something Aomine enjoyed on a regular basis but it was good. It didn’t do much to lighten his mood though. He handed it back to Kuroko and buried his nose into his hair, taking in Kuroko’s scent. He would miss this scent.

Kuroko looked sadly at Aomine when the milkshake didn’t seem to do anything to help him.

Aomine moved his unfinished food aside and wrapped his other arm around Kuroko as well. He pulled Kuroko onto his lap, half heartedly stroking his wings, not really having the energy to do much else.

“Do you want to play basketball?” Kuroko asked. “I think I’m going to win.”

Aomine was slightly comforted by the familiar question, but right now… “I don’t really feel like it.”

Kuroko frowned, sitting up a bit straighter. “Please? We should at least try to be happy for now. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want my last memories of you to be sad.”

Aomine knew Kuroko was right, but wanting to be happy and being happy were two different things. He forced a smile despite that, “You’re right.” He cupped Kuroko’s cheek and pecked his lips, “I’d like my last memories with you to be happy. But I really don’t feel like playing basketball right now. Can we just… can we just stay here like this today? We can play tomorrow.”

“You promise we can play tomorrow?” Kuroko asked skeptically.

“Yeah,” he whispered, “I promise.”

Kuroko gave him a tiny smile and pecked Aomine’s cheek before he snuggled up to him again, continuing to sip at his milkshake.

Aomine turned Kuroko around so that his back was to him so that he could hug him close while Kuroko could still drink his milkshake. It was a little awkward with Kuroko’s wings there but he didn’t mind it. He nuzzled Kuroko’s hair, kissing it and resting his chin on Kuroko’s shoulder, making himself comfortable.

Kuroko ended up falling asleep in Aomine’s arms, head drooping forwards and wings wrapped around himself as best they could with the way Aomine was holding him.

Aomine watched Kuroko fall asleep in his arms, kissing his temple as he laid them both down on them bed. He hugged Kuroko as close to him as he could without  hurting him, pressing his chest against Kuroko’s back. He placed one more kiss on the back of Kuroko’s neck, silently hoping he had more time than the little voice in the back of his head told him he had.


End file.
